July 29, 2011 [Link-Tastic Post 1]: The Debt Ceiling

Since the outset of this blog I have tried, with the links at the end of each post, to indicate just how much I see my own ideas here as both part of a broader conversation and as a starting point from which readers can and should continue their own research and reading and learning and analysis. To that end, and to add one more feature into the mix here, I’ve decided that I’ll occasionally create a post in which I try mostly to aggregate a few different useful and productive links on a particular topic; my goal here is not simply to replicate a Google search or the like, but instead to highlight other AmericanStudies-type work that, it seems to me, would help any interested reader continue thinking about the issues in question.

To start us off with a particularly relevant topic, here are (in no particular order, although the first few are more explicitly political/argumentative and the last couple are more primary source/statistical) some AmericanStudies-type links on or related to the debt ceiling:

1)      A post on the ceiling’s legal history, including a link to the full text of the Supreme Court case that more or less directly ruled the debt ceiling unconstitutional: http://renaissancepost.com/politics/debt-ceiling-unconstitutional-per-14th-amendment-and-proved-so-in-perry-v-us/

2)      Another take on that Court case, from the Constitution Center’s own site: http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/constitution-check-can-the-president-ignore-the-debt-ceiling/

3)      A history of debt ceiling votes (focused on Republican support) over the last 15  years: http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2295-A-Brief-History-of-Debt-Limit-Votes-in-the-House

4)      Ronald Reagan’s perspective on the first debt ceiling vote of his presidency, as he articulated it in his private diary: http://www.businessinsider.com/maddow-ronald-reagan-debt-ceiling-video-2011-7

5)      Info on the public debt over the past 60 years or so, from the Treasury Department: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/mspd/mspd.htm

6)      A series of charts related to federal budgets (including debts) from 1968 through 2007: http://www.cbo.gov/budget/data/historical.pdf

That’s enough for one post, I’d say! If you have other links to add, please feel free to do so, as always! More this weekend,

Ben

PS. One more time, any links you’d highlight?